| Situation of Disabled Persons in Thailand |
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| เขียนโดย Administrator | |||
| วันเสาร์ที่ ๑๓ มิถุนายน ๒๕๕๒ เวลา ๐๓:๐๖ น. | |||
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Situation of Disabled Persons in Thailand and the 3rd National Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan (AD 2007-2011) Dr. Jaturong Boonyarattanasoontorn Dr. Thipaporn Portawin Somsak Nakalajarn Preface More than 500 million people in the World are disable as a consequence of mental, physical or sensory impairment. Thailand's definition of disabilities is "A person with Disabilities means an individual who is limited by function and/or ability to conduct activities in daily living and to participate in society through methods used by persons without disabilities due to visual, hearing, mobility, communication, psychological, emotional, behavioral, intellectual or learning impairment, and has special needs in order to live and participate in society as to others." The National Statistic Organization(NSO) report that 1.9 million or 2.9 % of total population are people with disabilities1. As human being, they are entitled to the same rights as all other human beings and to equal opportunities. Too often their lives are handicapped by physical and social barriers in society which hamper their full participation. This article is based on an evaluation research to explore ‘Situation of Disabled Persons in Thailand and the 3rd National Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan B.E. 2550-2554 (AD 2007-2011). Research Objectives The research on ‘Situation of Disabled Persons in Thailand and the 3rd National Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan B.E. 2550-2554 (AD 2007-2011)” has an objective to study participation in social activities, access to information, access to and use of landscape, the progress of the Third National Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan B.E. 2550-2554, outputs, outcomes and spent budget, problems and obstacles faced by disabled persons in their participation to drive strategies of the tenth National Economic and Social Development Plan, and to study converting the Third National Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan B.E.2550-2554 into actions by various ministries.
Research Methodology As for methodologies applied in this study, researchers used literature research on rules and regulations related to life quality of disabled persons, and quantitative research to survey on situations concerning disabled persons’ participation in social activities, access to information, and access to and utilization of landscape from a sample group of 340 disabled persons spreading over types of disability and areas of the country – Northern Region, Northeastern Region, Central Region, Eastern Region, southern Region and Bangkok. Collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with frequency and percentage, analytic statistics with Chi-square, and qualitative research on life quality of disabled persons, life-quality-undermining problems and obstacles currently faced by disabled persons, disabled persons’ participation in social activities, access to information, and access to and utilization of landscape through in-depth interview of 21 disabled person leaders in four provinces – Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, Chonburi and Phuket. Qualitative data from in-depth interview and group discussion was synthesized to supplement information about situation of disabled persons from quantitative research, making it clearer and more concrete. As for the Third National Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan 2007 - 2011, researchers had created a framework for monitoring and evaluation in four areas: (1) assessing budget allocation for activities related to indicators of each strategy of government agencies and non-governmental organisations that work on disabled person issues in 2007-2008; (2) analyzing budget allocation of both government and private sector to see that it is used most for activities of what indicator and how should it be allocated to achieve utmost benefits for disabled persons; (3) studying problems and obstacles emerged in 2008 and making recommendations for implementing the Third National Disabled Persons Life Quality Development Plan 2007-2011 in the following years; and (4) studying work plan and budget of local administrative organizations related to disabled persons. Qualitative research methods were used in this monitoring and evaluation process to assess and analyse budget allocation for implementation of the plan in each strategy, monitor and assess results of operation by government agencies and disabled persons’ organizations through examination of work plans, projects, activities, lines of work and measures, and indicators for strategies of the Third National Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan B.E.2550-2554, benefits from the activities, and problems and obstacles emerged. Quantitative research methods were, on the other hand, used to explore situation of disable person, sub-district administrative organisations’ work plans and theirs budget and actions for disabled persons. Findings Results of this study on Situation of Disabled Persons are as follows: 1. Basic data of the sample group of disabled persons It is found that most of disabled persons are living in the Northeastern Region followed by the Central Region, Northern Region and Southern Region which is proportional to amount of Thailand’s general population and disabled persons. Male disabled persons outnumber female disabled persons by about two to one. Their largest age group is 21-30 followed by those in the age group of 31-40 and 11-20 respectively. More than half of disabled persons suffered from physical impairment followed by those with visual impairment, impairment of intellectual and hearing impairment. More than 70 per cent of them are single and only 20.25 per cent got married. About half of them completed secondary education followed by those who completed vocational education and primary education. Only a small number went to complete higher education and 10.71 per cent were not educated at all. In term of occupation, majority of disabled persons are studying and not working in nearly the same proportion. Only a small number of them are salaried employee, a status that shows recognition of a disabled person, with 3.85, 2.75, 0.85 and 0.55 per cent employed in private company, factory, state enterprise and as government official respectively. More than 70 per cent receive a monthly salary of no more than 5,000 Baht followed by those who receive 5001-10,000 Baht (19.09 per cent) and 10,001-15,000 Baht (6.36 per cent) respectively. More than 90 per cent say they are Buddhists. More than 90 per cent have registered with the government. Majority of those who have not registered say that they did not do so because they are not qualified. Apart from impairment that already causes difficulties, 17.31 per cent also suffer from chronic illness, mainly asthma, high blood pressure and diabetes, that requires long-term treatment. Nearly 80 per cent benefit from the universal health care system. 2. Disabled persons’ participation in social activities Majority of disabled persons take part in all or nearly all traditional ceremonies, while most of them never or rarely attend meetings held to solve problems in community or organized by local administrative organizations. Also most of disabled persons are not member or committee member of community-based groups, such as savings group or vocational group, because they are not very well accepted by the community. However, those who are member attend meetings or join activities of those groups every time or nearly every time. Similarly, most of them do not have opportunity to be a committee member of either disabled persons organization or government committee/sub-committee for disabled persons, but those who have the opportunity actively take up their role. About half of disabled persons joined with disabled person organizations to campaign for their rights, but only small number of them join such activity every time. Most disabled persons recognize importance of their political rights and express their rights by voting in both local and national elections. Disabled persons could not attend or join social activities as mentioned above because of several reasons, including inconvenience in transport, lack of time and opportunity, lack of information, being too young to be eligible as a voter to elect people’s representatives in both local and national elections, being illiterate and thus not eligible to vote in a national election, and being busy, having to do other task. 3. Disabled persons’ access to and utilization of landscape Government and private agencies of which disabled persons found most convenient to access services are state hospitals, department stores and clinics near to their home. Places or agencies that disabled persons see they receive most benefits are schools, department stores and state hospitals. 4. Access to information Majority of disabled persons say that it is easiest for them to access information from television followed in order by radio, mobile phone, daily newspaper and the Internet. They also receive benefits most from television followed by other means of communication in the same order. 5. Relationship between basic data about disabled persons and their participation and their access to landscape and information 5.1 A factor that is significantly related to group membership of disabled persons at level 0.01 is occupation, while factors that are not related to group membership of disabled persons are region, gender, age, type of disabilities, marriage status, education, income, religion, living/residential area, official registration as disabled person, personal illness and right to medical treatment. 5.1 A factor that is significantly related to group membership of disabled persons at level 0.01 is occupation, while factors that are not related to group membership of disabled persons are region, gender, age, type of disabilities, marriage status, education, income, religion, living/residential area, official registration as disabled person, personal illness and right to medical treatment. 5.1 A factor that is significantly related to group membership of disabled persons at level 0.01 is occupation, while factors that are not related to group membership of disabled persons are region, gender, age, type of disabilities, marriage status, education, income, religion, living/residential area, official registration as disabled person, personal illness and right to medical treatment. 5.2 A factor that is significantly related to disabled person’s being a group committee member at level 0.01 are education and occupation, while factor that is significantly related to disabled person’s being a group committee member at level 0.05 is region. On the other hand, factors that are not related at all to group committee membership of disabled persons are region, are gender, age, type of disabilities, marriage status, income, religion, living/residential area, official registration as disabled person, personal illness and right to medical treatment. 5.3 Factors that are significantly related to disabled person’s being a committee member of organizations of disabled persons at level 0.01 are region, age, type of disabilities, marriage status, education, occupation and living/ residential area, while and factors that are significantly related to disabled person’s being a committee member of organizations of disabled persons at level 0.05 are incomes, personal illness and right to medical treatment. Factors that are not at all related to disabled person’s being a committee member of organizations of disabled persons are gender, religion and official registration as disabled person. 5.4 Factors that are significantly related to disabled person’s being member of a committee that must have a representative of disabled persons at level 0.01 are region, type of disabilities, education and occupation, while factors that are significantly related to disabled person’s being member of a committee that must have a representative of disabled persons at level 0.05 are age and marriage status. Factors that are not at all related to disabled person’s being member of a committee that must have a representative of disabled persons are gender, income, religion, living/residential area, official registration as disabled person, personal illness and right to medical treatment. 6. Participation of disabled persons in social activities 6.1 Only a small proportion of disabled persons participate in traditional ceremonies in community. Disabled persons who are most likely to participate in these activities are those living in the Southern Region, having hearing impairment, having married, having university education, being government official, having income range of 5,000-10,000 Baht (61.9 per cent), having officially registered with the government as disabled person, and being disabled persons without personal illness. Gender and religion, on the other hand, do not matter much for disabled persons’ participation in any activities. 6.2 Disabled persons who are most likely to take part in solving problems in community are those living in the Northeastern Region, being in an age range of 51-60, having visual impairment, having married, having university education, being government official, and having income in a range of 10,000-15,000 Baht. On the other hand, gender, religion, living area, official registration as disabled person and personal illness do not matter much for disabled persons’ participation in any activities. 6.3 Disabled persons who are most likely to participate in all public forum are those living in the Northeastern Region, being in an age range of 51-60, having visual impairment, having married, having primary education, and being government official. On the other hand, gender has no impact on disabled persons’ participation in public forum. 6.4 Disabled persons who are most likely to participate in meetings of groups in community are those living in the Northern Region, being male, being in an age range of 21-30 (50 per cent) and having incomes between 10,001-15,000 Baht. On the other hand, type of impairment, marriage status, education, religion, occupation, living area, registration with the government as disabled person and personal illness have no impact on disabled persons’ participation in group meetings. 6.5 Disabled persons who are most likely to be committee member of groups in community are those living in the Central Region, being male, being in an age range of 51-60, having visual impairment and having married. On the other hand, income, education, religion, occupation, living area, registration with the government as disabled person, personal illness and participation in activities have no impact on disabled persons’ participation in meetings of group committee. 6.6 Disabled persons who are most likely to be committee member of disabled person organisations are those living in the Northern Region, being male, being in an age range of 21-30, having impairment of intellectual, having married, having university education, having their own business, having income between 10,001-15,000 Baht, being Buddhist, doing activities, living in Bangkok, not registering with the government as disabled person and having no personal illness. 6.7 Disabled persons who are most likely to participate in campaign are those living in the Southern Region, being male, being in an age range of 51-60 (32 per cent), having visual impairment, having married or marriage experience, having university education, being government official, having incomes between 10,001-15,000 Baht, living in Bangkok, having registered with the government as disabled person and having personal illness. On the other hand, religion has no impact on disabled persons’ participation in campaign. 6.8 Disabled persons who are most likely to participate in local election are those living in the Central Region, being male, being in an age range of 31-40, having physical impairment, having married, having education higher than graduate level, and being employee in factory / workplace. On the other hand, income, living area, registration with the government as disabled person and having personal illness have no impact on disabled persons’ expressing their right to vote in election at local level. 6.8 Disabled persons who are most likely to participate in election at national level are those living in the Central Region, being male, being in an age range of 21-30, having physical impairment, having married or marriage experience, having education higher than graduate level, living in Bangkok and being employee in a private company. On the other hand, income, religion, registration with the government as disabled person and having personal illness have no impact on disabled persons’ expressing their right to vote in election at national level. 7. Disabled persons’ access to service and utilisation of landscape and access to information in each region 7.1 Disabled persons in the Northern Region have good access to services as a whole. Services that can be easily accessed are state hospitals, clinics closed to home and tambon administrative organizations. Services that disabled persons cannot get access to are Donmueng Airport, Suvarnabhumi Airport and airports in the provinces. Sources of information that disabled persons can easily access and benefit most are radio and television. Disabled persons in the Northeastern Region have good access to services as a whole. Services that can be easily accessed are state hospitals, clinics closed to home, tambon administrative organizations, public telephones, schools and department stores. Services that disabled persons cannot get access to are private hospitals. Sources of information that disabled persons can easily access and benefit most are radio, television, mobile phone and the Internet. Disabled persons in the Central Region have good access to services as a whole better than those in other regions of the country. Most disabled persons in the Southern Region have no access to services. Services that can be easily accessed are bus stations, department stores and public buses. Services that disabled persons cannot get access to are train stations, airports in the provinces, provincial social welfare offices and public telephones. Sources of information that disabled persons can easily access and benefit most are radio, mobile phone and television. 7.2 In term of access to and utilisation of landscape, it is found that disabled persons with physical impairment can get access to and benefit from services easier than those with other types of impairment followed by those with visual impairment. Services that are easily accessed are department stores, public buses, state hospitals and clinics closed to home. Services that are difficult to access are daily newspaper, train stations, electric train stations on the ground and underground train stations. Sources of information that disabled persons can easily access and benefit most are radio and television. Services that are easily accessed by disabled persons with hearing impairment are public telephones, train stations, and electric train stations on the ground and underground. Sources of information that disabled persons can easily access and benefit most are daily newspaper. Services that are most difficult to access by disabled persons with impairment of intellectual are daily newspaper clinics closed to home and private hospitals (56.4 per cent). Sources of information that disabled persons can easily access and benefit most are television and radio. 7.3 In term of access to and utilisation of landscape in relation to level of education, it is found that disabled persons without formal education can easily access to and benefit from services. Sources of information that they can easily access and use are radio and television. Disabled persons with primary education can easily access and benefit most from state hospitals and clinics closed to home. Services that they have no access to are private hospitals and provincial social security office. Sources of information that disabled persons with primary education can easily access and use for their benefits are radio, television and mobile phone. Disabled persons with secondary education can get access to and benefit from services better than disabled persons with primary education or no education at all. Most of disabled persons with vocational education can get access to and benefit from services similar to disabled persons with secondary education. Most of disabled persons with university education can get access to and benefit from services better than disabled persons with vocational education, secondary education, primary education and no education at all. Most disabled persons with post-graduate education can get good access to and benefits from services, but some do not choose to use some services, such as clinics closed to home, provincial social security offices and schools because their occupation and financial status allow them choices. 7.4 In term of access to and utilisation of landscape in relation to their occupations, it is found that disabled persons who are trader, hire labourer in general, employee in general, employee in factory and other workplaces, government official, state enterprise employee, student, private company staff, farmer and self-employed or those with their own business have good access to and well benefit from services. Disabled persons who do not work, however, have poor access to and poorly benefit from services. 7.5 In term of access to and utilisation of landscape in relation to their living/residential area, it is found that most disabled persons who live both in and outside municipal area can access and use services quite well. However, disabled persons living in Bangkok Metropolitan can access and use services even better. 7.6 In term of access to and utilisation of landscape in relation to right to health care, it is found that disabled persons who have government official card and state enterprise employee card, social security card and health insurance card (the ‘Gold Card’) can best access to and benefit from state hospitals and clinics near to their homes. 8. Qualitative data from views of disabled person leaders This data points out that even though situation of disabled persons in 2008 as a whole has been improved from that in the past, upon looking in details life quality of disabled persons in several aspects is still in decline. Many problems, especially those about occupations, employment and income, need to be solved. Access to information, and access to and use of landscape, are still problems encountered by disabled persons of all types, particularly those with physical impairment and those with hearing impairment. This information is consistent then with quantitative data. As for the Third National Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan, four main conclusions come out from this monitoring and evaluation:.
The Third National Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan has four strategies: (1) administration and management of the disabled persons life quality development systems; (2) promotion and strengthening of disabled persons’ organizations and networks in development of disabled persons’ life quality; (3) building positive attitude of disabled persons, their families and society at large towards disability and disabled persons; and (4) promotion of environment that is free from obstacles against participation of disabled persons. Majority of the budget, 31,364 million Baht, was allocated for projects and activities in the first strategy where the largest proportion of 16,430 million Baht was allocated for the second line of work, that is development of medical, educational, vocational and social service systems for disabled persons to cover the whole country and 14,649 million Baht allocated fort the third line of work, that is supporting government agencies and non-governmental organizations to provide media, facilities and other assistance for disabled persons, including hand-language interpreters, Braille documents, audio books, physical aids and equipment for rehabilitation and independent living of disabled persons. The largest sum from this budget goes to a project to acquire new air-conditioned buses that use natural gas for vehicle and have facilities for disabled persons of which the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority, Ministry of Transport, was allocated a total of 14,201 Baht for the fiscal year 2007-2008. It is followed distantly by a project to provide basic education and capacity building for disabled children by Office of Special Education Administration under Office of the Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education which receives 1,583.94 million Baht in the 2008 fiscal year. The second strategy, on the other hand, receives least budget allocation at 155 million Baht, or 0.47 per cent of the budget, for the fiscal year 2007-2008. Examination of projects and activities of various agencies in the action plans under the Third Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan B.E. 2007-2012 in the fiscal year 2007-2008 in comparison with lines of work and measures in each strategy reveals that most projects and activities were consistent with the planned lines of work and measures. In the first strategy, however, only the fifth line of work, that is advocacy for a system that allocates budget as subsidies and increases revenue for funding mechanisms so that government agencies and non-governmental organizations are able to provide all kinds of nationwide and good-quality service for disabled persons, received budget allocation which mostly went to a project to subsidize Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s living allowance for disabled persons. As for the second strategy, that is supporting organizations and networks working for disabled persons to play a role as advisors or members of committee from local to national level to provide ideas for decision making by the government and organizations involved in operation for disabled persons, it was found that their such role was limited mostly to local level while they had no clear role at national level. As for the third strategy, it was found that very little had been done for the second line of work, that is promoting opportunities for disabled women to express their capacity and participate in social activities with only one project – a project to build capacity and create opportunities for disabled women to take part in social activities implemented by the Association of Disabled Persons of Thailand. The third strategy’s sixth line of work, that is promoting government agencies and non-governmental organizations to monitor and assess number of disabled persons who can live independently, on the other hand, also had only one project with no specific budget plan at all. As for the fourth strategy, its first line of work, that is advocacy for national policy and national agenda to create an environment free of obstacles for disabled persons and to promote access to information for a society free of obstacles for all people and also for turning this policy into practice, still had no clear project or activity. Most related projects were only to create environment free of obstacles. Moreover, there were only small number of activities that were consistent with its third line of work - promotion of curriculum and learning / teaching process on designing that is universal and fair, and fourth line of work – promoting and supporting education institutes to organize learning / teaching on designing that is universal and fair, and no clear budget was allocated for these activities.
Only four ministries had taken any clear actions for disabled persons: (1) Ministry of Social Development and Human Security The ministry had done concrete works, including development of three standards related to disabled persons: (1) standards for registration of disabled persons, (2) standards for promotion of welfare and protection of rights of disabled persons, and (3) standards for disabled persons rehabilitation funds, and promoting implementation of these standards, seminar for personnel responsible for registering disabled persons all over the country so that they work in the same line guided by a manual. The ministry also adopted community-based disabled persons rehabilitation (CBR) approach, building two community-based centers for learning about care for disabled persons in Ubol Ratchathai and Chainat Province, and had a plan to build 20 additional centers in ten provinces. However, problems and obstacles existed in form of delay in work and budget transfer which occurred when status of Office for Promotion and Protection of Disabled Persons’ Rights was changed to National Office for Promotion and Development of Disabled Persons’ Life Quality. . (2) Ministry of Education The ministry had supervised special education centers and welfare home schools all over the country, organised joint education programme for children with moderate disability to study with non-disabled children and parallel classes for autistic children. The ministry is currently running a joint learning leadership school project that would expand to close-to-home schools. Works have been carried out according to the National Education Act B.E.2542 (AD 1999), amended in 2002 that protects education right of disabled persons, and Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Promotion and Development Act B.E.2550 (AD 2007). Problems did exist in some areas where parents of disabled children still held a view that disabled children did not need schooling, kept them at home and blocking them from receiving education in a special education center, resulting in those children being deprived of education opportunity even if their home was near to a special education center. Education that Ministry of Social Development and Human Security requested Ministry of Education to organize for patients with chronic illness in hospitals, however, had not been carried out yet due to shortages of personnel and budget. (3) Ministry of Public Health The ministry had several works for disabled persons carried out before the advent of the 3rd Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan. Rajanugul Institute that took care of persons with mental disability and Sirindhorn Center that took care of persons with physical disability had a quite comprehensive plan to work for disabled persons according to their mission, but did not have enough budget, preventing them from fully taking care of disabled persons. (4) Ministry of Labour The ministry through Labour Skills Development Department had several well-implemented projects. Three examples are (1) a project to promote disabled persons to have vocational training together with non-disabled persons in general of which disabled persons were recruited and supported to receive appropriate vocational training together with other non-disabled trainees, so that disabled persons would be able to live normal life with non-disabled people; (2) a project to promote vocational training for different groups of disabled persons with a model project to develop disabled persons’ vocational capacity, giving disabled persons an opportunity to receive training for occupation that suited their types of disabilities; and (3) a project to promote national and international skill competitions for disabled persons of which two National Disabled Persons’ Skills Competitions had already been held and winners from the national competitions were sent to compete in the Seventh International Disabled Persons Skills Competition in Japan. From 13 categories they enterted, Thai disabled persons won two gold medals for pottery and oil painting, two silver medals for knitting and rattan products, and two bronze medals for computer assembling and electronic circuit assembling and test. 3. Actions taken by the Council of Disabled People of Thailand The council carried out several projects under the 3rd Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan. Monitoring and evaluation of a project to train disabled persons’ life quality volunteers in community organized by the council in 23 provinces has found that it was a useful project because it helped create volunteers to infiltrate in communities for some districts that had never had volunteers before and brought tambon administrative organizations to play more roles to help disabled persons. However, problems occurred in some areas where there were less participants than expected or planned budget was not enough and local administrative organizations were approached to ask for additional support without success as these local administrative organizations had not allocate budget to support this activity in their budget plan. 4. Tambon administrative organizations’ work plan and budget for disabled persons Surveying work plan and budget allocation of 115 tambon administrative organizations (TAOs) reveals that most TAOs did not pay attention to disabled persons’ life quality development or work plan for disabled persons. Proportion of budget allocated for disabled persons was still very small. It was found that in fiscal year 2007, percentage of budget allocated for disabled persons from total budget (excluding budget for personnel) was as lowest as 0.01 and only 6.02 in average. In fiscal year 2008, percentage of budget allocated for disabled persons from total budget was still as lowest as 0.01 and improved a little to 6.86 for the average mark. When average amount and proportion of budget allocated for development of disabled persons are compared to size of those TAOs, it was found that TAOs of all size tended to increase budget allocated for work plan on disabled persons and medium-size TAOs have proportion of budget allocated for disabled persons higher than that of large-scale and small-scale TAOs. In term of actions for disabled persons, it was found that most TAOs paid monthly living allowance to disabled persons in the area of their responsibility as their sole action because their leaders lacked vision and their personnel lacked knowledge and understanding about provision of welfare for disabled persons. Recommendations 1. Recommendations for disabled persons and their families: (1) Disabled persons should understand their disabilities, admit the reality, build up their morale, having confidence that they have certain capacity, and do not hole themselves up at home or narrow corner. (2) Disabled persons with hearing impairment and disabled persons with impairment of intellectual, who in general are not strong, lack opportunities and have no access to their rights and social services, should form groups for mutual assistance. Related government agencies, local administrative organizations, non-governmental organizations, organizations of disabled persons and private companies that are interested to make social contributions, on the other hand, should then support these groups. (3) Disabled persons should know, understand and have access to their eligible rights under the law for their being human, Thai citizen and disabled persons. (4) Disabled persons should let their positive capacity and creative energy seen by the society, participating in activities and projects that they could do some things for benefits of themselves, their families, community and society as a whole. (5) Disabled persons should pay attention to and take part in providing information about disabled persons that is useful for operation of government agencies, local administrative organizations, non-governmental organizations and organizations of disabled persons themselves. (6) Parents of disabled persons must have appropriate attitude and method for nurturing them. 2. Recommendations for organizations of disabled persons: (1) Organizations of disabled persons must perform their duties for the benefits and better life quality of disabled persons. (2) Organizations of disabled persons must perform their duties to protect rights of disabled persons, being representatives to advocate policy and make demands for rights of disabled persons. (3) Organizations of disabled persons should develop their administrative and management systems, making them efficient (based on good governance, work integration, and development of leaders and core members). (4) Organizations of disabled persons should encourage disabled persons to come together to set up more ‘organisations of disabled persons’ at sub-district, district and provincial level, and develop them to become strong organizations. 3. Recommendations towards government agencies: (1) The government should recognize and give priority to development of disabled persons’ life quality. (2) The government must take care of disabled persons who are not able to take care of themselves, ensure that their basic needs for living, including place to live, food, clothes, medical treatment upon being ill, living allowance, vocational skill development, occupational fund, and advice and assistance to solve problems on case by case basis, are provided. (3) Government agencies whose mission involve development of disabled person’s life quality should recruit disabled persons to work with them in order to become models for other workplaces that have not recruited disabled persons to work with them as required by the law. (4) The government should recognize and respond more to problems and needs for assistance of autistic children and children with impairment of intellectual. (5) The government should have more intensive policy and measures to support disabled persons with hearing impairment. 4. Recommendations for local administrative organizations: Local administrative organizations need to speed up development of their important role to develop life quality of disabled persons in their own local areas according to the duties being transferred and the Power Distribution Act B.E. 2542 (AD 1999). 5. Recommendations about directions of work for disabled persons: (1) Problems encountered by disabled persons and their real needs should be surveyed to find appropriate ways for development of life quality of disabled person of each type. (2) All sectors in society should support and give opportunities to disabled persons to express the abilities to earn their living. (3) Parties from all sectors at all levels should integrate their works and have overall management that makes development of life quality of disabled persons more effective and more efficient. (4) Development of a volunteer system to actively take care of disabled persons should be encouraged. (5) Disabled person database systems should be developed to make them more connected and thus more complete as a whole. (6) Public relations and information dissemination should be carried out, so that disabled persons know their rights under the law, are updated about current situation and social changes and thus are able to adapt and develop themselves to live happily with other people in society. 6. Recommendations about the 3rd Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan: (1) The National Economic and Social Advisory Council should advise the Budget Bureau in its allocation of national budget for the following year to pay more attention to the second strategy, that is the strategy to promote and support strengthening of disabled persons’ organizations and networks for development of disabled person’s life quality because in the fiscal year 2007-2008, this strategy was allocated least budget at 155 million Baht, or only 0.47 per cent of the whole budget. Strength of disabled person’s organizations and networks will be a key factor for improvement of disabled persons’ life quality. In addition, the bureau should pay attention to allocation of budget for the third strategy to create positive attitude of disabled persons, their family and society at large towards disabilities and disabled persons, especially its second line of work to give disabled women opportunities to express their capacity and take part in social activities, and for the fourth strategy to promote environment that is free from obstacles against participation of disabled persons, especially its fourth line of work to promote and support education institutes to have learning and teaching on designing that is fairer and more universal. This would make the Third Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan more balanced and covering all four strategies. Promoting disabled women to have more opportunities to express their capacity and take part in social activities may be done by promoting more participation of disabled persons, both male and female, as a whole while at the same time, focusing on having certain proportion of disabled women in participation process. As for learning and teaching on designing that is universal and fair, the Budget Bureau should allocate funds for research and studies or for investment in tools and equipment that enable disabled persons to learn together with non-disabled persons as much as possible. (2) Monitoring and evaluation of operation by government ministries reveals that only three ministries - Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Public Health - had clear actions for disabled persons. Other ministries, that are Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Ministry of Tourism and Sports, Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Defense, still did not pay attention to development of disabled persons’ life quality as much as they should. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives in particular had no work plan for disabled persons at all. The National Economic and Social Advisory Council should therefore advise these ministries to come up with work plans and allocate more budget for development of disabled persons’ life quality because development of disabled persons’ life quality is a work of all government ministries. (3) In order to support and promote organizations of disabled persons, making them strong, being capable to carry out various works, such as providing welfare for members of disabled persons organizations, campaign for rights of disabled persons, and having enough and secure financial supports for operation, and in response to potential increase of disabled persons that follows population growth in the future, the National Economic and Social Advisory Council should establish a working group on life quality of disabled persons as one of its permanent working groups. This working group should be tasked to monitor situation of disabled persons, coordinate with related government agencies and non-governmental organizations, study laws, rules and regulations related to disabled persons with an intention to recommend improvement of those that still create obstacles for disabled persons, such as, for example, the election law which should be amended to facilitate disabled persons of all types to be able to exercise their voting right without inhibition. In all, necessary changes should be recommended and made to enable disabled persons to develop themselves to their full capacity and participate in development of politics, economy, society and life quality of disabled persons themselves. (4) In order to stimulate local administrative organizations to increase their roles in development of disabled persons’ life quality, the National Economic and Social Advisory Council should recommend the government’s Local Administration Department to join hands with academic institutes that are experts in social welfare issues to organize training to provide knowledge about social welfare for disabled persons to personnel of local administrative organizations nationwide because caring for disabled persons at tambon or sub-district level is a direct responsibility of local administrative organizations of all types. This responsibility had been transferred from Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. Each local administrative organization has budget that can support disabled persons in its own area of responsibility, but their leaders and personnel still lack knowledge and understanding to provide welfare for disabled persons. Bibliography Jaturong Boonyarattanasoontorn, Thipaporn Portawin, Somsak Nakalajarn. Report on An Evaluation of The 3rd National Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan (AD 2007-2011) Jaturong Boonyarattanasoontorn, Thipaporn Portawin, Somsak Nakalajarn. Report on The Disable Situation in 2008 Ministry of Social Development and Human Settlement. The 3rd National Disabled Persons’ Life Quality Development Plan (AD 2007-2011)
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